


Cycles

by Kitcath



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Introspection, M/M, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 11:26:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6077589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitcath/pseuds/Kitcath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason knows it’s not healthy, the obsession he has with Tim. With the Replacement. He covers it up with cruel words and taunts and never lets himself think about how it felt when he gave way, surrendered beneath him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cycles

Jason knows it's not healthy, the obsession he has with Tim. With the Replacement. He covers it up with cruel words and taunts and never lets himself think about how it felt when he gave way, surrendered beneath him.

 

Tim is fifteen and tiny. He's bigger than Jason was at that age, but there's no promise of a growth spurt on the horizon. He's lean and tempered, the lines of his body already growing firm and strong. He's almost finished, the small, delicate form of him.

 

Jason knows it's wrong, the thoughts he won't think of, the ones that tease at the edge of his mind when he lies awake at night or makes pleasure out of function in the shower. Tim is only two years younger and has been through more than anyone deserves. If you count the time Jason was dead or catatonic they're almost of an age.

 

But Tim had a blessed childhood. Lonely, neglected, but secure. There were no scrambles for cash to pay the bills. No promises of what might be taken in trade next time he found himself a meal short. The only dark alleys in Tim's childhood were ones he chose to put himself in and Jason is self aware enough to know the things he called choices as a child were no choices at all.

 

He has read enough self help books, done enough distance courses to know where the thoughts of Tim, of the Replacement, stretched out and begging beneath him come from. Jason knows about the cycle of abuse. Jason has made mistakes and there are cycles he cannot break but this is one that will go to the grave with him.

 

Again.

 

So Jason tucks those unhealthy thoughts away and in later years, when they can sit to breakfast, when they can work cases together, Jason ignores the interest in Tim's, the Replacement's, face. Tim is sixteen and he knows about regret, but he is still too young to understand about choices that aren't really choices at all.

 

Jason is the adult, it is Jason's job to make sure there isn't a choice to get wrong. So Jason looks away and ignores the temptation and the invitation of Tim, the Replacement. Jason understands cycles of abuse.

 

One day, he hopes, he will break them.


End file.
